Dave Mustaine sent a Cameo to one lucky fan to tease Megadeth’s upcoming album The Sick, The Dying and The Dead. Even though Mustaine has released clips from his time in the studio during writing and recording sessions, the Cameo is the first audio clip from The Sick, The Dying and The Dead. After playing 12 seconds of “Life in Hell” Mustaine added, “I think that makes you the first person in the outside world — outside of the studio and the band and my family — that’s heard any music from the new record,”. Megadeth’s fans have been looking forward to The Sick, The Dying and The Dead for years since the band’s last album Dystopia was released in 2016. Earlier this year Mustaine started using Cameo, a video app fans can use to send personalized messages featuring their favorite celebrities, to keep fans updated on the status of the album. In one of the last updates Mustaine mentioned that the The Sick, The Dying and The Dead is near completion and will be released in Spring 2022. The album is a tour of, not only human history, but Megadeth’s history as well. It combines archived riffs and brand new ones with the main theme of the album focusing on pandemics throughout human history. Inspired by sickness and plagues with a focus on the bubonic plague from centuries ago, the album also touches on other worldwide pandemics such as the swine flu and covid. During an interview with American Songwriter back in November, Mustaine described the album as “a historical journey of how the plague started and where it went, starting with rats on ships carrying the disease, coming ashore in Sicily,”. Mustaine also added that some of his favorite archived riffs are from ”The Threat is Real,” “Holy Wars”, and “The Punishment Due”.

Photo Credit: Marv Watson